Jakarta. The toll road connecting Batang district and Semarang city in Central Java is in an advanced stage of construction and should be ready for the Idul Fitri exodus in June, state-owned toll roads operator Jasa Marga said.

The company has completed 69 percent of the 75-kilometer toll road and cleared 98 percent of the land it requires.

The road is part of the Trans-Java Toll Road, spanning 1,167 kilometers from Merak, the westernmost city of Java Island, to Banyuwangi on its eastern tip. The mega project is going to be complete in 2019.

"I expect the Batang-Semarang Toll Road to become operational for this year's Lebaran exodus," Jasa Marga president director Desi Arryani said in a statement on Sunday (11/02).

The construction of the Batang-Semarang section, which started in 2006, was halted for almost a decade, reportedly due to land acquisition problems. The project was earlier developed by some private companies, including Bakrie Toll Road, a company owned by tycoon-turned-politician Aburizal Bakrie.

In 2016, the Ministry of Public Works and Housing sold the concession to develop the road to Jasa Marga Semarang-Batang, a joint venture between Jasa Marga and Waskita Toll Road, a subsidiary of state-owned construction firm Waskita Karya.